Objects or vehicles floating on seawater, such as small boats, are currently retrieved onto ships by use of a shipboard crane through which a hook or attachment device is lowered into engagement with the floating object under crane operator control. However under rough seawater conditions, such seawater retrieval of the floating object by use of the crane is very difficult and often unsuccessful because of ship motions and the relative motions between the floating object and the ship crane hook under high sea wave and wind conditions. Under such rough seawater conditions, current practice sometimes involves use of personnel to maneuver the floating object such as a small boat in an effort to compensate for its motions relative to the shipboard crane and/or to manually seize the crane suspended hook and attach it to the small boat to be retrieved. Where the floating object to be retrieved is unmanned, such as a floating buoy or robotic vehicle, it is extremely difficult and time consuming to engage the crane hook with the floating object under high sea states.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide conventional shipboard cranes with facilities which avoid the difficulties and problem heretofore experienced therewith in retrieving unmanned floating objects alongside of a retrieval ship under rough sea conditions.